I crack myself up. In doing the "Irrewinds" here, I force myself to peruse old writings in order to come up with hopefully interesting things to revisit. Though far from a journal or a diary, the tone of the pieces and the subject matter I tended to address at given points in time serve as powerful reminders of what was going on in my own life at the time of their writing. Looking back on some of them, I'm embarrassed by quite a few. Humbled by others. But, they all make me laugh. More than once I've sat back and asked myself, "What the fuck was I thinking?" On a few occasions, I actually don't recall the answer.
If my own pointless musings are anything to judge by, I don't think I can ever say "people don't change" again and actually mean it. Sure, absent something extraordinary, people remain largely consistent, but there are always changes. Some tiny, minuscule, seemingly insignificant. Others noticeable, grand, seemingly profound. It's kinda cool, really. I can point to things I wrote about geopolitical issues just a couple of years ago - melodramatic and clearly passionate in their telling - that I don't believe now (whether from a change in mood or the acquisition of new information is beside the point). Such an observable phenomena might even make it hard for me to criticize wishy-washy politicians in the future (nah... probably not...).
Even within the creative writing found here I can see changes - again, some subtle, others drastic. There is a definite sense of hesitation in some of the older works - likely from a fear of writing honest characters - which all but disappears after my "ah ha!" moment in which writing sex (real sex, mind you... not superficial humpy sex or sex for shock value) ceased to be taboo. And it's fun to notice shifts in everything from preferred genres, to emotions, to words used a little too often during certain spurts of so-called creativity. I'm not claiming there's been a consistent level of improvement in anything... just that there's a consistent level of change.
Anyway, people change. To say otherwise is being disingenuous. Or, perhaps, being too old. But you all probably know this already.
7 comments:
we do...and i appreciate the promptings you have given me to help in mine and in your recognizing it on occassion in your comments...smiles.
See there have been a lot of changes here.
of course people change...some for the better and some, well some change and go off in a direction that cannot be good. All we can do is watch and learn.
yeah, they can change, with practice. But mostly they don't. Some people make change...the grocery store checkout girls are my favorites
I like the changes you have made here, too. As for the changes in your writing, they have been for the best.
Well, I didn't know you back when, but I, for one, hope you don't change too much. I do agree that in the time I've been reading your blog, your writing has changed a little. It's gotten better.
You've changed. As they say in Bali, same same only different . . Change is inevitable, embrace it.
Post a Comment